Recent developments warrant a senior China-U.S. dialogue regarding Afghanistan, beginning with the upcoming meeting between the Chinese and U.S. presidents in Seoul.

America’s Afghan pullout was a strategic debacle. Going back to Bagram Air Base would only sink the U.S. into another costly, divisive and failure-prone intervention in a geo-economic war at the center of Asia.

Donald Trump is threatening to retake Bagram Air Base to gain access to Afghanistan’s rich mineral deposits and to check China and other countries. It’s a costly fantasy. Trump himself signed the 2020 Doha Accord, and his about-face reveals a foreign policy driven by political revenge.

Third high-level meeting of Afghan officials, together with the foreign ministers of neighboring countries, reflected China’s strategic commitment to the greater Middle East region and charted a course that can lead to the end of chaos.

What is the role of the SCO in stabilization and reconstruction? The capacity of its members may be limited, but the U.S. withdrawal presents an opportunity to build credibility. Failure to act may invite skepticism in the international community about the group’s ability to participate in international affairs.

A Taliban-run Afghanistan poses some benefit to Beijing, particularly if they can maintain stability and steer clear of hostile agreements. And for better or worse, China has the opportunity to fill in gaps left by the fall of the U.S.-supported regime.

The transatlantic honeymoon is over. Europe is being forced, in its own best interests, to pursue greater strategic autonomy, since it is finding the United States to be a shaky and unreliable ally. Feeling exposed, Europe will look more toward providing for its own security.

Parallels between the U.S. withdrawal in Afghanistan and its previous defeat in Vietnam have been top of mind for many, nowhere more so than in Southeast Asia itself, where American intervention and the ensuing fallout is still being reckoned with today.

America’s wounds are wholly self-inflicted, and it has only itself to blame. Many betrayals have been committed over the last two decades, including some against its own allies, undermining their trust.

While Beijing has used Washington’s troop withdrawal out of Afghanistan to their advantage, the aftermath might put the U.S. in a better standing on the geopolitical stage.